The increased scrutiny on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) disastrous COVID-19 nursing home policy has sparked renewed interested in the actions of a number of Democra governors that took similar actions.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) has been targeted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff, who said last week that he plans to sue Whitmer ”all the way up to the Supreme Court” if necessary to release COVID-19 nursing home information.
Along with Michigan’s Mackinac Center, the veteran reporter shares they are preparing for legal action against the state’s governor. They claim Whitmer “refuses to turn over COVID death data and accurate nursing home numbers to the public.”
We are preparing a lawsuit against Gov. Whitmer of Michigan.
She refuses to turn over COVID death data and accurate nursing home numbers to the public.
All the way to the Supreme Court, Madam.
Thanks to the@MackinacCenter, who has agreed to take our case.https://t.co/sH3BtfZ32m pic.twitter.com/le65xN83SP— Charlie LeDuff (@Charlieleduff) February 27, 2021
According to LeDuff’s radio program,
“The Whitmer administration has not fulfilled my request or our request on the No Bulls%%t News Hour for COVID death data that may shed light on the true extent of the nursing home devastation. This, in my opinion, is a violation of state law, and more so and this is not an opinion, it is a danger and a disservice to our institutionalized elders who have borne the brunt of the suffering and continue to bear it.”
The Michigan governor has increased faced scrutiny over her leadership regarding state nursing home deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Republican state legislators have called for a full investigation into the issue, sending letters to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Michigan’s situation increasingly resembles recent headlines regarding New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s controversial nursing home COVID-19 situation. His mishandling allegations have led to calls for impeachment after grossly misreporting nursing home death statistics.
The New York Attorney General released a report that revealed the state greatly under-counted the number of nursing home deaths related to COVID-19. The report noted,
March through August 3, [New York State Department of Health] DOH reported a total of 6,423 resident deaths in nursing homes due to COVID-19, including 3,640 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 2,783 presumed7 COVID-19 deaths.
Whitmer issued an executive order similar to Cuomo’s ordering nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients, likely leading to untold numbers of unnecessary deaths. Her attempts to hide data despite increased reporting and legal pressure point to the need to dig deeper to discover what is really happening.
